Saxophone Forum

Hello I'm new

I decided about a month ago to learn to play the sax. When I was in elementary school I wanted to play sax and the music director gave me a French Horn to play... when I was in High School I wanted to play sax in the Jazz Band and the director gave me a trumpet to play. I got my sax and immediately connected with it! I've been teaching myself and welcome any advice

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Re: Hello I'm new

Glad to hear you've finally gotten to play your instrument of choice. Best advise for beginners is to try to get in practice every day and listen to as much saxophone as you can. If you're playing jazz, check out the masters and start transcribing as quickly as you are able. Also, don't forget to do long tones, just 5 minutes before each practice and I promise your sound will improve. Have fun!!!

Re: Hello I'm new

Re: Hello I'm new

French horn is a very difficult instrument and, since your director started you on F horn in elementary school, you must be loaded with brains and talent. Saxophone, as you must know by now, is much simplier in the beginning. In addition to Mark's excellant advice, I would suggest a private teacher who will save you a lot of time.....Good luck and welcome to this site!

Re: Hello I'm new

The saxophone is a great instrument! I've been playing the alto a lot lately. I recommend for warm-up you learn some type of scale (I play the Concert Bb Major). I find it helpful and so do my students, though they have trouble. I do have some tips you may want to know, but nearly don't help.

Never get your instrument too cold/warm, it can go downhill if you do. It messes up your saxophones internal parts. Think of it as brushing your teeth and drinking orange juice.

Know your limitations, break them!

Set up a set system of items that you buy for your saxophone. Changing reeds could affect your playing because your mouth needs time and practice to get used too.

Practice! You probably already do, but you only need to practice 15-30 minutes everyday. This ensures that your lips and the muscles in your jaw/mouth are up to date.

Never play right after eating. You get all the food particles from your saliva into your saxophone. It's quite disgusting if you ask me. I'll teach you a trick to get rid of the sticky keys that come afterward.

I have this really other cool tip for getting rid of sticky keys. You take an avergae dollar and fold it in half. Take your dollar and open a key. Put the dollar and close the key onto the dollar. Now keep it closed tight and pull the dollar out. This gets rid of all the extra muck that hides. Pretty cool, right?

Considering you already played the French Horn means you have a great understanding of music itself. Though both the trumpet and french horn are not woodwinds (No Reeds). Never change to a stronger reed unless your going to stick to that stronger reed. Your lips are set to a certain point. On my tenor I had to change from a 2 1/2 to a 3. It took me so long to adjust!

Well if you follow the advice everybody else gave you it's going to be easy. Trust me it's a boat-load easier to teach somebody saxophone in person. Good luck!